June 12 2000

ARTICLE TOOLS

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When we let go of money we are letting go of part of ourselves and part of our security. But this is precisely why it is important to do it. It is one way to obey Jesus' command to deny ourselves. … When we give money we are releasing a little more of our egocentric selves and a little more of our false security. … Giving frees us to care. It produces an air of expectancy as we anticipate what God will lead us to give. It makes life with God an adventure in the world, and that is worth living for and giving for.

Things themselves do not remain, but their effects do. Therefore we should not be mean and calculating with what we have but give with a generous hand. Look at how much people give to players and dancers—why not give just as much to Christ?

It's pretty hard to tell what does bring happiness. Poverty an' wealth have both failed.

People give to achievement and promise and hope, not deficits.

If you were a jerk before, you'll be a bigger jerk with a billion dollars.

It is more blessed to give than to receive, but then it is also more blessed to be able to do without than to have to have.

–What is the chief end of man?to get rich. In what way?--dishonestly if we can; honestly if we must. Who is God, the one and only true? Money is God. Gold and Greenbacks and Stock—father, son, and ghosts of same, three persons in one; these are the true and only God, mighty and supreme.

[Wesley's] famous formula, "Get all you can; save all you can; give all you can," must be supplemented. It should read: get all you can; save all you can; freely use all you can within a properly disciplined spiritual life; and control all you can for the good of humankind and God's glory.

I do not think I exaggerate when I say that some of us put our offering ...